I am a year 13 student at Heworth Grange, currently sudying A level Media Studies

Tuesday, 23 October 2012

Who do you think you are? - BBC 2

http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b01mhh17/

This is a programme, which is normally aired on BBC 2, which follows a well-known person in order to find more about their family history. It tends to just follow one subject matter, by following one side of the family tree.
The mise-en-scene of the locations suggests to us that it is going to be rather informative. This is because the show is based on fact, which is a typical convention of a documentary. If they are talking about a certain object, the camera would point to it. This connotes to the viewers that this is defiantly what they are talking about, and that they have both visual and sound evidence of what they need to know. Because of all of this, it makes it all seem very personal.
In terms of Cinematography, the camera has a habit of zooming in on objects. This connotes the importance of these of these objects as they are brought into focus to the audience. Throughout the clip they have tended to leave some space between the speakers so that they see what is still going on in the background. This shows that they are in public places, mainly, and therefore able to relate to them. There have been a range of shots used, and we can see that they have tended to relay on establishing shots to show us where the action is taking place. This helps the audience to know what is going on and to keep up.
For edits, the camera isn’t always on focus to the person whom is speaking. This reinforces that there are many things that are happening throughout the time that they were filming. We can also see their reaction. There is also a technique that has been constantly used where we can see that the image is going from blurry to being in focus. This is important as it means that our eyes are being drawn to that object that is being presented to us as an audience. There are also a number of cuts that are present as they cut back and forth to the family tree. This also helps to present the continuity as we get the same music being played each time that this happens.
Sound is one of the most important technical codes that have been used throughout the clip. The main reason for this would be the use of the deictic sound in the music. This is because any of the music played tends to be towards the emotions of what is happening. It also tends to help keep the story moving. There is also no real attempt to keep any of the other non-deictic sounds, such as the cars, quieter when they are speaking. Therefore we know that they really are out on location. One of the main features of sound would be the voice over, which appears to be something of importance throughout documentaries as it is something that I keep coming across. This means that we are able to look at artefacts, such as images and documents, and still hear what the professional has to say. This, therefore, means that it will be a good technique for me to use within my own documentary.